Chinese Interest In London Up

Leading independent global property consultancy Knight Frank yesterday said it expects transaction value of newly-built properties in London sold to Chinese mainland buyers to double in the next 12 months.

The London-based company, which has sold about 15 million pounds (US$23.71 million) worth of new properties in London over the past 12 months, has just set up a full-fledged International Project Marketing division in its Shanghai office to tap the rapidly-growing demand from Chinese mainland investors.

“We’ve noticed a dramatic increase in the percentage of newly-built property in central London going to Chinese mainland buyers over the past year and a half,” said Seb Warner, Knight Frank’s Asia-Pacific regional director of international project marketing. “We’re pretty confident that the figure could double to 30 million pounds in the next 12-month period.”

Knight Frank said the surge is mainly driven by a favorable exchange rate and London’s status as a top destination for international property purchases.

In particular, about 10 percent of Chinese mainland buyers are keen on the super-prime market while the majority seems to be most interested in properties with a price tag of between 2 million yuan (US$313,480) and 10 million yuan, according to Knight Frank research.

Source – China Business News

Insight: The Chinese are currently taking special interest to invest their money in overseas real estate market for many reasons. Common key reasons are the potential capital appreciation and the opportunities those countries offers to them, while many go for political stability, education standards, investment hub and many others.

Some of the countries that they invest in are namely; Singapore, US, London and Malaysia.